Something Borrowed: Beyond the Glass

[nybble]

The room beyond the glass was dark, lit only by the various instruments and machines which were keeping Jessup's wife and daughter alive.

The police officer who spoke to him said it wasn't anyone's fault, really. When the boat broke away from the truck that was pulling it up the hill towards the stop light, the truck surged forward and pushed his family's car into the intersection ahead, where the semi crossing the intersection sheered the top of their car off and ran over the rest. All that was left were their heads and upper torsos, now kept active by a room full of machines.

He was no doctor, not any more at least. Sure, he had the education, but not the license. He could never stay on one field long enough to finish a grueling program like an internship. But he had found other ways to make his mark on the world.

Noticing motion, he focused on the reflections in the glass in front of him, and, beyond his own deep and haggard expression, he could see the young doctor behind him.

"Sir, may I speak with you?" the young man said. He looked like it was his first day on the job, with his perfect white lab coat and shiny name tag, which read 'Dr. R Nabo'. He held an aluminium clipboard in one hand and was nervously clicking a ball point pen in the other.

Jessup nodded, not turning away from the glass. Now that Jessup thought about it, R. Nabo was the first doctor to speak with him directly since he got to the hospital. Before now, it was all nurses and lawyers. A quiet "What?" was Jessup's only verbal reply.

"Um, I'm Dr. Nabo," the young man began. "I would like to speak with you about the available treatments for your family."

Jessup nodded again. He looked beyond the glass. He looked past the machines and saw his daughter's face, his little girl all grown up. She was in college now, starting her second year. Her face looked peaceful, her eyes closed. No movement could be seen, but the machines told the story. Her blood was pumped by machine, oxygen supplied to her blood by machine, waste filtered from her blood by machine, and pain killers added to her system by machine.

Raja, Dr. Nabo, glanced left and right to the empty hallway around them and continued his explanation. "Our medical technology is very extensive, but your family cannot survive on these machines for more than a week. We can pump and clean the blood indefinitely, but the artificial lung is not perfect, and cannot oxygenate their blood as well as actual lungs. I'm sorry."

Jessup looked over at his wife now. She was in worse shape, at least by the looks of her bruised face, but by the nurse's previous description, she faired better in the accident. An entire lobe of her left lung was intact. With the proper treatment, she could last a few days longer than Terry.

"But there is hope, if you will listen to a possible new treatment which-"

"Yes."

Raja cleared his throat regrouped. "Sir?"

Jessup looked down and to the side, breaking eye contact with the glass for the first time. "You were about to offer the F.B.P., and I said 'yes'."

"I don't know what you have heard about the Flannigan/Castillo Full Body Prosthesis. I am obligated to explain. The brain is scanned using a sub-atomic resonance scanner, and the entire person's thoughts and-"

"I understand the treatment. There is no need to explain."

"I'm sorry, sir, but I cannot allow you to sign off on the procedure until I have explained it."

Jessup turned and gave Raja an angry, determined stare. "I understand everything. There is a one hundred percent chance of transfer success, but about a twenty percent chance the subject goes insane shortly after regaining alertness. If that happens, you can retry the transfer once, maybe twice if the subject's organic state hasn't deteriorated. Five or six percent chance of dead is a Hell of a lot better than one hundred percent chance of dead." Jessup reached for the clipboard. "Now give me the damn papers and I'll sign."

After a moment, Raja handed him both the clipboard and then the pen. Jessup signed his full name, Jessup K Flannigan, on each paper and returned the clipboard and pen to Raja.

Raja took it back and, examining the signature on the top sheet, realized everything. "I'm sorry, sir, I didn't know." He turned to head down the hall, paused, and added, "We will do everything in our power."

Jessup nodded and watched Raja's quick steps as the intern left down the corridor towards the nurse's station. He turned back to watching the two most important things in his life, the two women beyond the glass. His lips curled up in a tentative smile. He knew the transfer would work, that in a few short weeks, his family would be whole again. He knew everything was going to be all right. It had to be.

[blake_sigma]

Nice and Intense!!!

Is there more to this story?

Hope to see it soon!

Thanks

[DollSpace]

This is a very nice intro and could be the beginning of a really good story! I'm definitely curious to read more of this, and I'm not really a transformation fan.

I always look forward to your stories. Please post more soon!

Catie

[csoloist]

C'moon, don't tease us.

[Stephaniebot]

I'm hoping, and assuming there will be more. At least I hope there will be

[PowerDroid5000]

Amazing start

[tectile]

This is a good story and I think it's self contained enough to stand on it's own.

I'm not sure I really want to read more unless I'm guaranteed a happy ending though

The idea of an insane mind in a theoretically ever lasting artificial body is just too creepy.

I'm probably over thinking this

[Steamboy]

There need to be more of this.